Race Emerges As An Issue in Democratic Primary
Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. didn't like each other much, the history books tell us. But they found a way to work together to make people aware of the need for, and then enact civil rights legislation, that changed the face of America. But now it seems the roles the two men played - and who had the biggest role - has lead to a confrontation some 40 odd years later tinged with overtones of race in the 2008 Democratic primary.
Sena. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama are at odds over a remark that Clinton made last week about the role that Johnson played in getting the civil rights act of 1964 passed. Clinton said King's dream of civil rights would never had become a reality if Jonson hadn't been able to enact the legislation. Obama supporters and as well as several African-American leaders, suggested that Clinton was downplaying the role that King played. All this is happening, of course, just before the primary in South Carolina where African-American voters will play a key role in deciding the victor.
NPR's Audie Cornish reports on how the two camps are snipping at each other over how to interpret the remarks. Then former Sen. John Edwards joined the fray by also taking a shot at Clinton, saying the remarks could only have been made by a Washington politician. Edwards and Obama are both trying to take the mantle of "agent of change" as the non-Washington outsider who can make a difference.
But not all prominent African-Americans side with Obama and Edwards on the issue. Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television blasted Obama in South Carolina,
"And to me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood - and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book - when they have been involved."
Many people are interpreting the remark as a slap at Obama's admitted past drug use. But Johnson released a statement saying that he was only talking about Obama's time as "as a community organizer, and nothing else."
10:30 AM ET | 01-14-2008 | permalink
